


Salt With No Caramel

by PeculiarProjects



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Coffee, Coffee Shop Owner Emily, Coffee Shops, Cute Ending, Felix and Locus don't know one another, Fluff, Locus is a workaholic, Locus likes black coffee, M/M, More thoughts than dialogue, One Shot, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Salty Coffee, Spitefic, Staring, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 09:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15482529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeculiarProjects/pseuds/PeculiarProjects
Summary: Locus is sleep-deprived and just needs some caffeine in his system. Unfortunately for him, Felix decides that salt would be the best sweetener for Locus.





	Salt With No Caramel

Locus was distracted. He felt off: lightheaded and overworked. He had initially assumed it was caffeine withdrawal, but now he realized his body was probably shocked from his unexpected double shifts, three days in a row. His job was for a unique delivery business, but he unfortunately remained one of the only consistent employees. They tried hiring more, but so many potential workers backed out when they heard that many of the jobs were on-call, and employees were only paid by the clients, not from the business owner. 

 

Locus didn’t mind though. He became accustomed to running on practically no sleep, and the money was good. Most of the clients were elderly and couldn’t do the jobs for themselves, but they were generous with their payments. 

 

He just needed a little time to himself though, in order get some caffeine into his system and possibly close his eyes for a few hours. 

 

During times like this, when his body screamed to sleep but he knew his mind wouldn’t allow it, he’d go to the nearest coffee shop. It forced him to get out of the house and experience what was happening in the world beyond his job. His observant personality also forced him to people-watch, and sometimes what people did when they didn’t realize there was an audience was quite amusing. 

 

Locus also began to notice who the other regulars and consistent employees were. He’d never actually spoken with any of them, but he silently acknowledged them. Over time, Locus had discovered that the short-haired barista he always saw was actually the owner of the café. At first, he thought that she was a workaholic like him, but she was just trying to keep her business afloat. 

 

She smiled familiarly as the bell above the door chimed pleasantly. Locus simply nodded in her direction, sitting down where he usually did. 

 

He never realized how secluded his spot was until the girl had asked him jokingly, “Are you hiding from someone?” Locus never gave any deep contemplation on where he sat. He thought that he had simply gravitated towards any place that was open, but purposefully or not, he went where the least amount of people would see him. 

 

Locus stayed lost in his thoughts, head in his hands until the girl came over with a steaming cup.

 

“An unsweetened, black coffee for our macho-man over here.” 

 

“Thanks, Emily,” Locus looked up at her, and watched her grin widely. She turned her back on him then, swiping her dark brown-grey bangs out her her face. Locus could see new purple dye coloring the hair close to the nape of her neck. She headed back to the counter with a subtle bounce in her step. 

 

The first time he ordered black coffee rather than any of the fancy frappuccinos and lattes, Emily blanched at him. Now, she didn’t need to ask him what he wanted because his order stayed the same, and she knew he’d pay on his way out. Sometimes, he had three or four coffees before leaving, so Emily just let him be. 

 

Locus placed his phone face down, knowing that any notifications that might appear could wait fifteen minutes. He left his coffee for a moment, rifling through some of the magazines on an end table. Deciding it didn’t matter what he read, he picked something at random and took it with him back to the table where his coffee was cooling down. 

 

There was something about the smell in a coffee shop and reading actually printed words. Locus found the atmosphere of the shop to be almost… rejuvenating, and preventing himself from looking at his phone screen was like recharging his mental batteries until the next time he went out for coffee. 

 

He finally was settled, and he lifted the cup to his lips as he read meaningless tabloid facts. 

 

His coffee tasted… strange. The taste was tangy, and almost had a texture to it. He had drunk enough of the shop’s coffee in order to distinguish how it typically tasted, and he actually liked their coffee a lot. But this time, there definitely was something wrong, and he put the cup down for a moment, glancing inside of it. 

 

That’s when he heard laughter from the table besides him.

Looking up slowly, Locus saw a man with short brown hair that was buzzed to a short blonde on the sides of his head. He sported snake bite piercings in his delicately pale skin. There was nothing delicate about his smile though. Wicked and smirking, it was obvious who was the culprit for the strange state of Locus’ drink. He was tempted to ask Emily for another coffee, but he raised the cup again.

 

Despite wanting to reflexively curl his lips in disgust, Locus continued to calmly sip the coffee. He kept eye contact with the man, holding his steel eyes to his silver. He burned his tongue on boiling hot, salty coffee, but he didn’t care. The shocked expression he received made the foul aftertaste completely worth it.

Using his best poker face but refusing to look away from the man’s now wide eyes, Locus was still able to get a good look at him. He wore a bright orange shirt, unbuttoned at the top. What appeared to be caramel macchiato sat beside him, but the whipped cream had either melted into the drink over time or the man sucked the fluff off of the top. Even though Locus was staring deeply into silver irises, he thought he could see a trace of some other unidentifiable color.

Only after a few sips, Locus adjusted to the sickening taste of the salted coffee. He tried to pretend like it was a salted caramel coffee, but without the syrupy sugar of caramel. In the back of his mind, he also wondered if it tasted decent now because he was mentally distracted by the attractive man before him. 

 

Locus finished his coffee sooner than he wanted, and he stood, leaving money on the table for Emily to scoop up. As he walked towards the shop’s door, he drifted close to the adjacent table. 

 

“A little sweet for my taste,” he said lowly, under his breath. He didn’t allow himself to smile until he had soaked in the horrified expression of the man and face his back to him. 

 

The bell above the door chimed cheerily as he stepped into the sun, grin plastered on his face. 

 

He only walked a few steps when he heard the café’s bell ring again. Locus felt a gentle hand clutch at his shoulder, bringing him to a halt. 

 

Locus was both pleasantly surprised and also not shocked at all to see the prankster of a man. Now that they were standing side by side, Locus could see that he was significantly taller, possibly more than a head taller than the other guy.

 

The man tilted his head and put a hand on his hip comfortably. He studied Locus, looking him up and down before holding out the half-full frappe lazily, as if Locus was the one impeding on his time. 

 

“I noticed you have too much salt in your system. You might want to get that checked out by a professional. This will be a temporary remedy until you call that number.” Locus then took the drink that was being pressed to his chest, looking at the scribbled handwriting on the plastic. There was a phone number, as well as the name “Felix.” 

 

“Felix,” Locus couldn’t help but read aloud. 

 

The man--Felix--then smiled. Locus noticed that the lips curled happily, but his facial features were sharp and defined, giving off a look of mischievousness.

 

“Well, Felix,” Locus made sure to drag out the newly discovered name. “Be sure to inform your professional that Locus will be contacting them.” 

 

“Locus,” Felix drawled out. Their eyes matched again, but this time there wasn’t the ferocity and spite like before. Locus thought he saw a flicker of calm in Felix’s now softened expression. 

 

“Great,” was all Felix said before he spun away, a bounce in his step. Locus watched him flounce away, concerned that someone with so much energy would ingest more sugar. 

 

He touched the straw to his lips, sucking gently. Locus was relieved to find solely sugared fluff and no tainted salt taste. 

 

His smile formed around the plastic straw, hand firmly grasping smeared sharpie words. 


End file.
